At a time when B-52 heavy bombers are frequent flyers over the Korean peninsula (see: North Korea shenanigans) it’s nice to know that they’re keeping ready. Six B-52 Stratofortresses from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, took part in Exercise Combat Hammer, an annual air-to-ground combat training exercise which tests bombing capability, according to a release from Minot. “We exercise to ensure we are able to hit a target that the Air Force tells us to hit, with weapons they tell us to use, at a time they want it to be hit,” Maj. Ryan Cox, 5th Operations Support Squadron chief of wing…
Browsing: b-52
A military base in Poland could soon be repurposed to support NATO in its mission to reassure eastern European allies of its oversight amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict. NATO’s top commander in Europe, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, told a briefing in Naples this week that he plans to recommend “having capability in the forward area — preposition supplies, preposition capabilities, and a basing area ready to rapidly accept follow on forces.” “How we man that in a rotational, or non-permanent, basis is what are we looking at now to propose in NATO, and we will be working on that with…
“These experiences become engrained in your mind, and never go away.” March 29, 1973, marks the day when then-Capt. Robert Certain was released from a Hanoi prison during Operation Homecoming. “Every year between Christmas and Easter becomes an anxious time for me remembering those Prisoner of War days,” Certain said in an interview with Air Force Times. This year marks the 40th anniversary of his release. On Dec. 18, 1972, President Nixon ordered a campaign against military targets in the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong during the Vietnam War, known as Linebacker II. A part of the 340th Bombardment Squadron…
An Air Force B-52 crashed in Maine in 1963, killing seven of the nine people on board. In 1993, a snowmobiling club set up a memorial to honor the fallen airmen. Now that snowmobile club is urging others to quit the jackassery. The B-52 coordinator for the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club told the Bangor Daily News people are vandalizing the area and leaving with pieces of the wreckage. He asked anyone who removed part of the bomber to return it. “Anything removed from this site shows a total disrespect for those committed to protecting all of us,” Pete Pratt told…